'dead in the water', again

Posted by EAH on August 25, 2003

In Reply to: 'dead in the water', again posted by GPP on August 25, 2003

: I posted a question only a couple of days ago, but it's already disappearing out of sight down the page, with no responses to date: Can anyone help me with the provenance of the phrase 'dead in the water' (which pretty soon could be applied to the question itself)?

When there is no wind, a sailing ship is 'dead in the water'. Another related phrase is 'in the doldrums'.